Englishmum

Our annual housing tax for a modest 3-bedroomed colonial house in New Jersey (New York Metro area) is currently now $14,300 per year - it was $7000 pa when we moved in during the Summer of 2000. Honestly, that is considered 'low' for our town...! We do however get our rubbish collected twice a week....

When one of our neighbours retired he sold up and moved out of New Jersey, I was amazed when he told me that single people and/or retired people don't get any discount on their housing taxes (they do in the UK) and many choose to retire to States like Delaware, North Carolina and Florida where the housing taxes are cheaper. He left because he didn't want to pay for other people's kids to be educated in such an expensive public school system (although ironically his kids were educated in the local public schools and both he and his wife were teachers).

I also find the cost of electricity to be very high because unlike the UK with a temperate climate, air-conditioning is almost a necessity in the very hot and very humid Summers in NJ. I can't wait to leave the US - hopefully in approx 18 -24 months - and would dread growing old there.

I'd love to hear what people are charged for window cleaning in other parts of the US and Down Under....I was charged a whopping $400 for my windows and insect screens to be cleaned and they won't be cleaned again until the house goes up for sale! My mum in England was horrified, I think she only pays around 15 pounds!

PS. going totally off-topic but the PP mentioned about wine purchased in NY costs more than in the UK. I'm in Switzerland right now...and Swiss wine (apparently rarely exported, they consume most if it themselves) costs more than Italian, French, Spanish wines etc. However, I discovered an Aldi and a Lidl here (kind of like the old Kwik Save shops) and some of the wines and German beers are really inexpensive....not much more than paying for a couple of litres of soda lol!

sallysimmons

You know, we haven't been able to find a window cleaner at all. Our windows got cleaned last year when we had the house painted, because the painters did it for free. I really need to find someone before we put the house up for sale.

Our property taxes are around the same as yours although we do get a discount for not having kids in school (they would be even higher otherwise). And I hear you on the utility costs - NUTS!

Sally Redux

I asked the neighbours about window cleaning when i first arrived - they all looked puzzled, they thought someone had had this strange thing done recently and it cost $400. Mine are filthy, the upper ones are so hard to reach. I seem to remember it cost me 7 pounds a time in England and I gave them a couple of quid at Christmas

Elvira

We once got a flyer - $25 per window special discounted rate for a limited period only.

No idea whether this includes insides and out, +/- the screens, as I stopped reading at the $25 per window bit.

No one here gets their windows cleaned.

They do, however, pay for 'yard service'. (We don't. Probably bringing the neighbourhood down. Who cares...)

Karrie72

Well I'm definately bringing down the neighborhood then with me washing my own windows and screens and doing my own garden work. Yard work here seems to consist of bringing in trailers of noisy tractors, chemicals etc. I'm sure the neighbors don't appreciate my hodge-podge, cottage garden approach to landscaping. Honestly though I've never seen a window cleaning service here. Might be a nice little business though by the sounds of their fees over here!

Sally Redux

'Yard work' consists of paying guys to rev up those bloody annoying noisy leaf blowers and blow leaves and dust all over the neighbourhood

Mummy in the foothills

This why I have boys I used to use window washing as punishment, you could pretty much guarantee I got them done at least once a year.
Our yard is more like a field and has to be cut down ready for the summer to hep protect from grass fires. Nothing fancy here

Bob

Aye, high end booze is cheaper here, but the low end stuff certainly isn't.

Trader Joes is fairly cheap though, the $5 bottle of wine isn't entirely crap for instance...

Mummy in the foothills

You mean they want $5 for a bottle of two buck Chuck now?

chris955

That post by bigshanks reminded me of someone throwing a hand grenade into a room and running away laughing
I cant relate to most of what he said and I prefer to go by my own actual experiences but we are all different.

sallysimmons

There's, unfortunately, no way we can wash our own windows. Our house is built on a hill and even the living room windows are beyond human reach. To get up to the bedrooms you need a very tall ladder and nerves of steel.

For the same reason, we pay gardeners. No way am I lugging a lawnmower up the hill to mow our patches of lawn.

Every time I bring groceries home, or take the garbage down, I remember how romantic I thought the house was when I first saw it up on the hill. Lesson learned.

Bob

That's $3....but $5 is their house red, which is a frog bottle...

Karrie72

Your house sounds lovely!

Karrie72

Wine at TJ is dangerously cheap.

Karrie72

I actually have really creepy memories of window cleaners lol! They came about once a month and I was never warned beforehand. I remember them just popping up in the window when I happened to be in my bedroom reading or getting changed. It seemed really intrusive at the time and yet I felt it would be rude to pull the curtains over!